‘You cannot identify as an astronaut’: U.S. Transportation Secretary gives final word on all-female Blue Origin crew

A recent Blue Origin suborbital flight with an all-female crew has started a strong argument about what it means to be called an “astronaut.” However, it seems like the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) stricter rules for the title should have ended it. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated that the passengers, even though they flew higher than the internationally accepted edge of space, do not qualify as astronauts under the FAA’s standards.

Duffy shared his view in an X post, praising the crew’s courage and high-profile status but clearly stating that their 11-minute trip to space did not make them astronauts under FAA rules. The conflict comes from the FAA’s 2021 update to its Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program.

These new rules say that to earn astronaut wings, a person must do something during the flight that helps with public safety or improves human spaceflight safety. The Blue Origin flight was completely automated, meaning the passengers had no active role in flying the spacecraft.

No Blue Origin crew will actually be astronauts

The issue isn’t completely about the money spent. Being an astronaut requires sacrifice and years of work from those trying to take a huge risk, and it even taxes their families due to the effort taken. It’s a monumental task that is more about self-sacrifice for the good of humanity, and “astronaut” is a title earned after all this sacrifice and work.

It makes people mad when that’s a title that others want to take by trying to buy their way in instead of earning it. Every time someone can buy in, they lower the title’s meaning. People don’t like seeing such a coveted position be lowered to the cost of a ticket in a tourism service.

The Blue Origin flight, carrying Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez, Gayle King, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, and Kerianne Flynn, reached 62 miles high, which is well above the 50-mile Karman Line that marks the boundary of space. However, just reaching this height is not enough under the FAA’s updated rules.

Even still, they did something big, and are listed on the FAA Commercial Human Space Flight Recognition page. That’s what you earn from paying your way in, and that’s perfectly fine and a step above what the rest of us have been able to do.

The FAA’s older definition only cared about altitude, which made sense in the early days of space travel. The 2021 change shows a shift toward recognizing the growing complexity of spaceflight and making a clearer difference between passengers who want the glamor and those who actively work on critical mission tasks for the benefit of humanity.

The FAA’s updated rules show a greater focus on active involvement and contributions to a mission when deciding who gets called an astronaut. However, as commercial space travel grows, the line blurs between passengers who go to space and those who perform traditional astronaut duties.